Lee County 'scanning' streets in need of repair

It's been seven long years with broken down roads. Resident Sylvia Ross describes it as, "horrible, deplorable conditions. Some roads I will detour and actually go around."

But Darin Leydig and Paul Stine are two people who mark the start of change. Together, they covered more than 300 miles in a specialized SUV north of Fort Myers.

Lee County's Department of Transportation contracts Applied Research Associates and their oversized truck. It's equipped with half a dozen cameras and a set of lasers.

Together, the team drives up and down streets measuring every nook and cranny.

All the camera and laser data is fed into the SUV where it is carefully watched by an engineer. It's then put on a hard drive and sent to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, to be analyzed. Then it is all sent back to Lee County, printed out on maps where the department of transportation figures out which roads to pave first.

Lee DOT Director Randy Cerchie also has his eyes on Lehigh Acres, with more than half the county's 3000 miles of pavement. It cost $100,000 a year to map and study the streets. Cerchie says it is a small price compared to the $3 million spent paving them each year.